Use PowerShell to copy a database to a new server

Article
03/03/2023

This Azure PowerShell script example creates a copy of an existing database in Azure SQL Database in a new server.

If you don't have an Azure subscription, create an Azure free account before you begin.

Note

This article uses the Azure Az PowerShell module, which is the recommended PowerShell module for interacting with Azure. To get started with the Az PowerShell module, see Install Azure PowerShell. To learn how to migrate to the Az PowerShell module, see Migrate Azure PowerShell from AzureRM to Az.

Use Azure Cloud Shell

Azure hosts Azure Cloud Shell, an interactive shell environment that you can use through your browser. You can use either Bash or PowerShell with Cloud Shell to work with Azure services. You can use the Cloud Shell preinstalled commands to run the code in this article, without having to install anything on your local environment.

To start Azure Cloud Shell:

Option	Example/Link
Select Try It in the upper-right corner of a code block. Selecting Try It doesn't automatically copy the code to Cloud Shell.
Go to https://shell.azure.com, or select the Launch Cloud Shell button to open Cloud Shell in your browser.
Select the Cloud Shell button on the menu bar at the upper right in the Azure portal.

To run the code in this article in Azure Cloud Shell:

Start Cloud Shell.
Select the Copy button on a code block to copy the code.
Paste the code into the Cloud Shell session by selecting Ctrl+Shift+V on Windows and Linux, or by selecting Cmd+Shift+V on macOS.
Select Enter to run the code.

If you choose to install and use PowerShell locally, this tutorial requires Az PowerShell 1.4.0 or later. If you need to upgrade, see Install Azure PowerShell module. If you are running PowerShell locally, you also need to run Connect-AzAccount to create a connection with Azure.

Copy a database to a new server

# Connect-AzAccount
# The SubscriptionId in which to create these objects
$SubscriptionId = ''
# Set the resource group name and location for your source server
$sourceResourceGroupName = "mySourceResourceGroup-$(Get-Random)"
$sourceResourceGroupLocation = "westus2"
# Set the resource group name and location for your target server
$targetResourceGroupname = "myTargetResourceGroup-$(Get-Random)"
$targetResourceGroupLocation = "eastus"
# Set an admin login and password for your server
$adminSqlLogin = "SqlAdmin"
$password = "ChangeYourAdminPassword1"
# The logical server names have to be unique in the system
$sourceServerName = "source-server-$(Get-Random)"
$targetServerName = "target-server-$(Get-Random)"
# The sample database name
$sourceDatabaseName = "mySampleDatabase"
$targetDatabaseName = "CopyOfMySampleDatabase"
# The ip address range that you want to allow to access your servers
$sourceStartIp = "0.0.0.0"
$sourceEndIp = "0.0.0.0"
$targetStartIp = "0.0.0.0"
$targetEndIp = "0.0.0.0"

# Set subscription 
Set-AzContext -SubscriptionId $subscriptionId 

# Create two new resource groups
$sourceResourceGroup = New-AzResourceGroup -Name $sourceResourceGroupName -Location $sourceResourceGroupLocation
$targetResourceGroup = New-AzResourceGroup -Name $targetResourceGroupname -Location $targetResourceGroupLocation

# Create a server with a system wide unique server name
$sourceResourceGroup = New-AzSqlServer -ResourceGroupName $sourceResourceGroupName `
    -ServerName $sourceServerName `
    -Location $sourceResourceGroupLocation `
    -SqlAdministratorCredentials $(New-Object -TypeName System.Management.Automation.PSCredential -ArgumentList $adminSqlLogin, $(ConvertTo-SecureString -String $password -AsPlainText -Force))
$targetResourceGroup = New-AzSqlServer -ResourceGroupName $targetResourceGroupname `
    -ServerName $targetServerName `
    -Location $targetResourceGroupLocation `
    -SqlAdministratorCredentials $(New-Object -TypeName System.Management.Automation.PSCredential -ArgumentList $adminSqlLogin, $(ConvertTo-SecureString -String $password -AsPlainText -Force))

# Create a server firewall rule that allows access from the specified IP range
$sourceServerFirewallRule = New-AzSqlServerFirewallRule -ResourceGroupName $sourceResourceGroupName `
    -ServerName $sourceServerName `
    -FirewallRuleName "AllowedIPs" -StartIpAddress $sourcestartip -EndIpAddress $sourceEndIp
$targetServerFirewallRule = New-AzSqlServerFirewallRule -ResourceGroupName $targetResourceGroupname `
    -ServerName $targetServerName `
    -FirewallRuleName "AllowedIPs" -StartIpAddress $targetStartIp -EndIpAddress $targetEndIp

# Create a blank database in the source-server with an S0 performance level
$sourceDatabase = New-AzSqlDatabase  -ResourceGroupName $sourceResourceGroupName `
    -ServerName $sourceServerName `
    -DatabaseName $sourceDatabaseName -RequestedServiceObjectiveName "S0"

# Copy source database to the target server 
$databaseCopy = New-AzSqlDatabaseCopy -ResourceGroupName $sourceResourceGroupName `
    -ServerName $sourceServerName `
    -DatabaseName $sourceDatabaseName `
    -CopyResourceGroupName $targetResourceGroupname `
    -CopyServerName $targetServerName `
    -CopyDatabaseName $targetDatabaseName 

# Clean up deployment 
# Remove-AzResourceGroup -ResourceGroupName $sourceResourceGroupName
# Remove-AzResourceGroup -ResourceGroupName $targetResourceGroupname

Clean up deployment

Use the following command to remove the resource group and all resources associated with it.

Remove-AzResourceGroup -ResourceGroupName $sourceresourcegroupname
Remove-AzResourceGroup -ResourceGroupName $targetresourcegroupname

Script explanation

This script uses the following commands. Each command in the table links to command specific documentation.

Command	Notes
New-AzResourceGroup	Creates a resource group in which all resources are stored.
New-AzSqlServer	Creates a server that hosts databases and elastic pools.
New-AzSqlDatabase	Creates a database or elastic pool.
New-AzSqlDatabaseCopy	Creates a copy of a database that uses the snapshot at the current time.
Remove-AzResourceGroup	Deletes a resource group including all nested resources.

Next steps

For more information on Azure PowerShell, see Azure PowerShell documentation.

Additional SQL Database PowerShell script samples can be found in the Azure SQL Database PowerShell scripts.

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